Psalms 72:18–20

Psalms 72:18–20 closes both the psalm of Solomon's ideal kingship and the entire Second Book of the Psalter with a solemn, liturgical doxology praising Yahweh as the God of Israel whose name deserves eternal blessing. Verse 20 then appends a scribal colophon crediting the preceding collection to David, son of Jesse, signaling a major editorial seam in the Psalter's five-book structure. Together these verses teach that all human kingship — however glorious — is penultimate, dissolving finally into the praise of the one divine King.

Verse 18 — "Praise be to Yahweh God, the God of Israel"

The Hebrew opens with barûk YHWH Elohim, Elohei Yisra'el — a berakah, or blessing-formula, one of the most ancient liturgical expressions in Israel's worship. The doubled divine title is deliberate: YHWH (the personal, covenantal name revealed to Moses at the burning bush, Ex 3:14) is identified with Elohei Yisra'el, the God specifically bound to Israel by covenant. This is not the generic divine being of philosophical speculation but the God who acts in history, makes promises, and keeps them. The phrase "who alone does marvelous things" (which immediately precedes verse 18 in the Hebrew and is often printed as the second half of v. 18 in critical editions) sharpens the point: levado, "he alone." All wonder, all miracle, all saving power belong to him. The doxology therefore serves as the theological verdict on the entire psalm: whatever Solomon or any Davidic king accomplishes — feeding the poor, crushing oppressors, extending peace to the ends of the earth — is ultimately Yahweh's marvelous doing, not a human achievement.

Verse 19 — "Blessed be his glorious name forever!"

Yikaret kevod shemo le'olam — "May the glory of his name endure forever." The word kavod (glory) carries enormous theological weight throughout the Hebrew Bible: it is the weighty, luminous presence of God that fills the tabernacle (Ex 40:34), that Isaiah sees enthroned in the Temple (Is 6:3), that Ezekiel watches depart and return (Ez 10, 43). Here the psalmist prays that this glory — not a monument to human kingship — will fill the whole earth: yimallē' kevodo et kol ha'arets, "and may his glory fill the whole earth!" The phrase echoes the seraphim's cry of the Trisagion and reaches forward to the New Testament vision of the earth transformed by divine presence. The exclamatory Amen and Amen — the doubled Hebrew 'amen we'amen — is a solemn liturgical ratification, a congregational seal of assent. The Psalter does not merely assert God's glory; it invites the community to ratify, to co-sign, to say yes together.

Verse 20 — "This ends the prayers by David, the son of Jesse"

This verse is a scribal colophon, a concluding editorial note marking the end of a collection. The word kālû ("are ended/completed") signals finality. Notably, the psalms that follow — including many explicitly Davidic psalms in Books III–V — show that this colophon does not mean there are no more Davidic psalms, but rather that a particular organized collection has reached its close. The phrase "prayers of David the son of Jesse" () deliberately invokes the full Davidic lineage, grounding the Psalter's authority in the covenant God made with the house of Jesse (1 Sam 16; Is 11:1). The colophon thus functions as both a literary hinge and a theological statement: the "prayers" of David — Israel's ideal worshiper, the "man after God's own heart" — have been organized, transmitted, and handed on as a sacred deposit.

Catholic tradition reads the doxologies that close each of the Psalter's five books (Ps 41:13; 72:18–19; 89:52; 106:48; and Ps 150 as a whole) as a divinely inspired architecture of praise embedded within Scripture itself. St. Augustine, in his Enarrationes in Psalmos, recognized that the Psalter's structure mirrors the soul's ascent: all prayer, lament, petition, and wisdom ultimately resolve into laudatio Dei, the praise of God. The doubled Amen of v. 19 finds its echo in the liturgical Amen of Catholic Mass — the Great Amen following the Eucharistic Prayer — which the Catechism of the Catholic Church (§1348) calls the Church's ratification of "all that is accomplished in the liturgy." The early Church Father Justin Martyr described the congregation's Amen as a consent by which "all the people present express their approval," making the assembly co-offerers of the sacrifice of praise.

The divine name (shem) blessed in v. 19 connects directly to CCC §203–213, where the Catechism meditates on the holy name YHWH as an expression of God's fidelity and his very Being. The Church's tradition of reverencing the divine name — expressed in Jewish practice of not pronouncing it, and in Catholic reverence for the name of Jesus as its New Testament fulfilment (Phil 2:9–11) — finds its scriptural root precisely in doxologies like this one.

The colophon of v. 20 illuminates the Catholic understanding of Sacred Scripture as a living tradition — not merely composed but compiled, transmitted, and delivered by a community under divine guidance. The Second Vatican Council's Dei Verbum (§8) affirms that Scripture comes to us through "the apostles and their successors" just as the Psalms came through editors and collectors who served the worshiping community of Israel.

Every Mass ends, as this psalm does, with a doxology: "Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father… all glory and honor is yours, forever and ever." Catholics who feel the Great Amen slipping by unnoticed in the liturgical routine might use Psalm 72:18–19 as a daily reset. The doubled Amen and Amen of the psalmist was not rote but deliberate — a moment of full, conscious consent. Before or after Mass, a Catholic could simply pause on verse 19 as a short contemplative act: letting the name of God be genuinely blessed in the heart, not just the lips.

The colophon of verse 20 also speaks to the spirituality of endings. Collections close; projects conclude; lives reach their term. The psalmist models how to end well — not with self-congratulation but with a handing over. St. Thérèse of Lisieux closed her autobiography similarly: all her "little way" prayers, offered up and completed, given to the Church. The Christian can apply the same posture to every season of life: finish the work, ratify it with Amen, and let the glory go upward.